Gauteng MEC for health Qedani Mahlangu will not comment on what caused the deaths of 36 transferred psychiatric patients in the province in recent months‚ until a departmental investigation is complete.
“I am not going to discuss in public the outcome of these things because we are beginning to encroach into a private doctor-patient relationship and that can't be correct‚” she told radio station 702's John Robbie in an interview on Wednesday morning.
Mahlangu sent the department's sincere condolences to the affected families but said that no further information can be provided until investigations have been completed.
It is not clear whether the causes of death will be released to the public once the investigation has been wrapped up.
“We will continue with the investigation‚ with the forensic pathologist as well as the team from justice‚ just to look at what the causes of death of these particular individuals [are].
"Let's not get into the merits of the causes of death. Let's allow the professionals to do that work. Then we can have a conversation‚ not about what the causes of death are‚ but about whatever the issues [are] that will come out."
Psychiatric patients being treated at Life Esidimeni were this year placed in the care of NGOs by the Gauteng health department‚ after it terminated its contract with the healthcare provider.
Thirty-six transferred patients in the province have died.
Mahlangu said that the deaths may not necessarily be related to the move and that all was not well at Life Esidimeni at the time the patients left. The patients were transferred without their clinical files.
“Simply‚ what I think I need to indicate to the public is that when the patients were [taken] over from Life Esidimeni not everything was hunky-dory and we've finally had a meeting with them last week.”
Mahlangu said Life Esidimeni is expected to share the clinical files of patients with the department soon‚ which will assist in the investigation.
Mahlangu also said that some patients and their family members had been “difficult” during this time.
“Some of them are extremely difficult. They have been difficult from day one when we had a meeting with them‚ [with] myself present [and] the HOD present. But we want to continue to want to work with them in accordance with keeping with our responsibility of providing quality health.”
She also said that all the NGOs patients had been moved to were vetted and that she had visited some personally.
“The important thing we said‚ and I continue to say that‚ [is that] we are not going to make these patients worse off.”
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